INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh I'm not ready for this cold. I don't think my birds are either. There has been a lot of brotherly-fowl love going on. I am seeing everyone in pairs, even chicken to turkey, using body heat and the sun. About half of them are still sick and I'm doing a second round of Corrid on everybody. Most aren't laying, which is good - less I have to throw away. I have been working diligently on moving things around in the chicken yard and cleaning things.  Most of the birds are improving, save one poor Brahma.  She is just not good. I think I will give her a couple more days on this round of meds and if by Sunday she's not doing better, I may have to let her go. She's so lethargic and gurgly. One eye is matted shut and full of puss.  Yesterday when I was giving her the medicine and putting stuff on her eye, puss just drained out.  It was probably the nastiest thing I have seen in awhile.

All my puppies are running around in the yard with them now and - oh this makes me laugh - the two adult turkeys are so calm and good natured that they have been sitting in the yard and have let the pups crawl all over them.  I need to take my camera out with me!!

Corid is a brand name of Amprolium, a thiamine blocker that is really only effective at treating Coccidiosis. Your birds are probably still sick because you haven't treated them for what they have.

Gurgly sounds and oozing eyes don't make for a good prognosis. Are there any other symptoms? Rasping or clicking while they breath? Nasal discharge, clear or colored? Diarrhea? I can do my best to find out what they have, but you will probably want to stop the Corid to make sure it isn't causing or covering symptoms.

ETA: Something I didn't think to ask--does the discharge in your hen's eye smell foul or does it have a smell at all? These symptoms with the foul odor are often indicative of Infectious Coryza.

Here is a good chart to look at if you want to diagnose for yourself what your birds have: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Best of luck!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
FF will freeze, I keep it in the laundry room in the winter,
I watch their intake, and increase what I feed until theres only a tiny bit left when feeding out.
In very cold weather I do feed meatbird crumble also, FF. They need the protein and carbs to help keep warm.
Not sure how thats going to work this year, but I dont have any barn cats left so thats 2 less buckets.
My oldest DD took the small female in, and my old guy has been missing for weeks.

I am sure around Christmas more will show up tho

.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Was reading a blog online. Turns out that the writer has a special chicken with a special answer to the Cockeral or Pullet question. If you search for "Unclear Gender/Sex? Is My Chicken an Hermaphrodite? The Story of the Gynandromorph Chicken" on google the article will come up. Turns out the chicken is not a crowing rooster or a laying hen yet.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

They do love millet, which is just special treat because it is very fatty.

Finally, I understand the song.

The woman in question fed her parakeets a lot of millet.

That's why............. are you ready for it?

"She had the biggest parakeets in town".

Thanks for clearing that up.

John

 

[HappyHappyHappy]

HappyHappy-
Cute video! It looks as though your pop door is elevated from the floor, is that correct? Our 2 week old chicks figured out how to fly 18 inches up to the pop door yesterday, when their mother left the coop. YIKES! All 3 were standing on the top of the pop door ramp screaming for their mother. Have yours done that yet?
I'm concerned that they will again follow her outside today - while I'm at work - and unable to corral them and keep them inside.

CCCCCCCCChickens-
So sorry to hear about your hen. I hope your roo gets better quickly.
Your bird pictures were great! Thanks for sharing!

I have noticed that only one of the mothers goes out at a time and the chicks stay in with the other one.. I assume if they can get out they can also get back in.. I plan to at best not step in and change much of anything. A Smart chicken will survive and the dumb ones should weed themselves out.. It is not like they are expensive show chickens, if something does happen im out a mutt LF chick that cost me an egg....With this being my first time I am really impressed at how durable these chicks are.. when i got my original chicks in the spring I did exactly as i read and kept the brooder at 95 the first week dropping it by 5 degrees a week keeping everyting perfectly clean every day.. with these chicks all I did is put a small water and chick starter food thing in the nesting box they were born in.. They run around in chicken poop that is in the coop ,deal with it being 30 degrees outside, and run freely between all the other 33 chickens in the flock no problem..

 

[Webechickens]

Oh I'm not ready for this cold. I don't think my birds are either. There has been a lot of brotherly-fowl love going on. I am seeing everyone in pairs, even chicken to turkey, using body heat and the sun. About half of them are still sick and I'm doing a second round of Corrid on everybody. Most aren't laying, which is good - less I have to throw away. I have been working diligently on moving things around in the chicken yard and cleaning things. Most of the birds are improving, save one poor Brahma. She is just not good. I think I will give her a couple more days on this round of meds and if by Sunday she's not doing better, I may have to let her go. She's so lethargic and gurgly. One eye is matted shut and full of puss. Yesterday when I was giving her the medicine and putting stuff on her eye, puss just drained out. It was probably the nastiest thing I have seen in awhile.

All my puppies are running around in the yard with them now and - oh this makes me laugh - the two adult turkeys are so calm and good natured that they have been sitting in the yard and have let the pups crawl all over them. I need to take my camera out with me!!

Hey, sorry to hear about your chicken sicknesses. A couple of months ago I got 2 new chickens to add to the flock. When I got them home and was sitting quietly with them, I noticed one of them was kind of wheezy. Kept them quarantined for 4wks. before introducing them. Nothing ever got worse and they had no other symptoms of illness, so, I let them in with the other 16. The next day, multiple chickens started sounding gurgly and sneezy. Our rooster couldn't even crow. Sounded like he had laryngitis. Started all of them on Duramycin-10 in their drinking water (1 Tablespoon per gallon, fresh daily for 7-14 days.) Saw huge turn around in all of them in 2 days. Couldn't believe it. It is a drag, though, having to throw away all the eggs for 21 days after stopping the medication. It's worth it to me to have my chickens well. Glad I tried it.

 

[Delawaremommy]

Moving around chickens today and gave this older silkie cockerel I need to find a new home for. Under 6 months old. I have too many silkie Roos so thus has to go. I love his color, but not sure what you would call it.

Also have this straight comb chick also needing a new home. Not sure of sex.

I'd really like to get rid of both soon as I have more chicks hatching and need the room. There is no charge for either.

could he be porcelain???

Yes, that is the problem. I am just gone too long during the day! I would also like to keep chores easy in case I need a petsitter for some reason. With horses and dogs it is already hard to find someone who is capable of juggling the madness! Adding a difficult chicken regime to the fray is not ideal!

Petsitter is CERTAINLY the limiting factor for us, too.
We had 'normal' pet store variety pets and still found the petsitter situation daunting. When we added 7 chickens, and 3 newly hatched chicks I was beside myself to leave for vacation for a week.
We have a good pet sitter, but I don't believe she knows anything about horses. We should definitely compile a PETSITTER resource list!

I would love to be on the list of petsitters!! I do horses goats dogs cats fish indoor and outdoor birds and can follow directions for any other animals you have. I am on the southwest side of Indianapolis and am available 7 days a week!

Thanks, Old Salt and Pginsber! You both gave me a good laugh! Thanks, everyone, for letting me vent. Grrrr! There, now I'm done.

My DH and I have decided to consult Angie's List for a carpenter or buy a ready-made coop for now. We can always build a bigger one next summer if need be and make this one our 'honeymoon cottage' for breeding later on.

Snow expected tomorrow! Brrrr!

I went with the premade one for now as I didn't want to have it take forever to build. My brother is an engineer....enough said!

Hey there everyone! Very excited to find a Hoosier BYC thread! I wish I had found this thread sooner. I have 11 hens (Black Stars, Jersey Giants, RIRs and an Ameraucana) and 18 Speckled Sussex eggs in the incubator, on day 2. In the Terre Haute area, haven't looked to see if there is anyone else from my town.

Sussex huh!?!?!?!

Finally, I understand the song.

The woman in question fed her parakeets a lot of millet.

That's why............. are you ready for it?

"She had the biggest parakeets in town".

Thanks for clearing that up.

John

sad John....very sad

 

[Delawaremommy]

I am claiming post 16158 as my 60th post!

 

[amwchickin]

Pipd - Symptoms are: white discharge from eyes, and then skin around eyes is full of crusties (great medical term!). Runny noses, rasping and gurgling. Roosters not crowing. All have kind of extend their necks and open their mouths to breath. A little lethargic. I think there is a smell coming from them, but not sure if it's the eyes or their breath. I do see a lot of light colored diarrhea. It seems as if their wattles have all shrunk too.

Some chickens have no symptoms and seem fine. The turkeys seem fine as well; they always kind of hack, but I suspect they do that because they forget to take a drink once in awhile when they eat and get a little choked up.

I have been getting no more than 3 eggs a day from 11 laying birds. (I do throw them out).

Webechickens - I think that is exactly what happened here. I brought home a couple new birds, one had lice or mites and I quickly got that nipped. After the month long quarantine period I let them out and then everyone started getting sick.


Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Leahs Mom]

HappyHappy-
Cute video! It looks as though your pop door is elevated from the floor, is that correct? Our 2 week old chicks figured out how to fly 18 inches up to the pop door yesterday, when their mother left the coop. YIKES! All 3 were standing on the top of the pop door ramp screaming for their mother. Have yours done that yet?
I'm concerned that they will again follow her outside today - while I'm at work - and unable to corral them and keep them inside.

Mamma Will take them out! She expects them to follow her.

When mine are really little and I can't be there, I try to rig an area that momma and the kiddos have to stay inside until I can watch them some.

I do have an outdoor pen that they go into but during the days the pen gate is open to they can range. I could close the gate but then ALL the adults have to stay in the pen.

We had a hawk attack last week so I decided to put everyone in jail awhile until the little kiddos are bigger but before that I was letting mamma take them onto the range side when I was home.

Can't remember if I posted this here (forgive me if this is re-runs)...the outdoor pen is chain link dog kennel and the tiny kids can go right through it. I lined the bottom part with the plastic netting so they wouldn't wander out.

I cut the roll in half lengthwise then just zip-tied it to the kennel.

Overlap at the gates.


Here they are in jail. Been there for about a week and a half. There's a deep litter/mulch in there for them to scratch through and dig up worms and what-not.







I put these "log steps" up last winter when I had my first broody. We had lots of old wood around and it worked really well so that they could hop down and up steps rather than the ramp I had before. They would always slide on the ramp and always had more problems navigating it. I think that old ramp caused a bumblefoot too. On the logs, they can just stride right up and down. The littles hop from log to log easily after momma shows them.






When I have little ones inside, I try to make them steps up to the pop door on the inside too from wood or blocks or whatever I have around so they can follow momma easily in and out.





The current kiddos - 7.5 weeks old ... and in jail for the last 2 wks.